COVID-19: India cases inch closer to 3m, spread in south

New Delhi: India has recorded another 24-hour jump in coronavirus infections as the disease spreads across the country’s southern states after plateauing in the capital and the financial centre of Mumbai.

India’s Health Ministry reported 69,878 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 2,975,701. Globally India has been reporting the biggest daily rise in cases for 18 consecutive days.

Some 2.2 million people have recovered from the disease in India since the first case was diagnosed in late January.

India has the third-highest caseload after the United States and Brazil, and its 55,794 deaths give it the fourth-highest death toll in the world.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation, said Friday that the goal was to end the pandemic within two years of its first emergence in Wuhan, China, late last year.